Really Strange Teamakers

If you’ve spent any time at this site you might have noticed that the topic of tea gadgets comes up now and again. If you’ve never noticed or you’re new to the site, be sure to look here for more gadget-related goodness.

One tea gadget that seems to pop up often is the tea maker. Nowadays these tend to be sleek, high-tech and so automated that they’ll do everything but bring the tea from the kitchen to wherever you happen to be. But there have been plenty of more low-tech versions of the automatic teamaker over the years. British tea drinkers may recall (or still use) a gadget known as a Teasmade, among other things. I wrote about these a while back and my Esteemed Editor tackled the issue of “imitation” Teasmades more recently.

One of my favorite teamakers lately might not really be all that odd, but it gets plenty of strange points for the fact that it’s part of a military all-terrain vehicle called a Supacat Light Reconnaissance Vehicle 400. According to this report its apparently designed for use, at least in part, by the British. As a company representative noted, “anybody will tell you, no British soldier is happy unless he’s got a cup of tea.”

I have to admit that I wasn’t able to figure out the patent description for this Device for Timing and Automatically Steeping Tea from a few years ago, but it appears that it might be worthy of inclusion in the really strange category. I might have mentioned this next one before in one of my gadget reports, but given the topic of this article it’s worth pointing out this gizmo. It appears to work something like a French press and even comes with its own zippered jacket. At $110 – it probably should.

In the spirit of saving the best for last, I’d like to put in a mention for this truly curious device, a cold drip coffee and tea maker that looks like a cross between a laboratory instrument and a piece of antique furniture. It seems to be designed more for coffee drinkers but claims to be usable by tea people as well. At $220, it’s hardly a casual purchase for most, but it sure is different.